WATCH Laois shopkeeper goes national about Portlaoise shoplifting scourge
Aidan Colgan forced to shut shop when court sits in Portlaoise
A Portlaoise shopkeeper has decided to close his shop when courts are sitting to stop shoplifting by drug addicts who are waiting to appear in the town's courthouse.
Aidan Colgan, who runs three sports shops in Laois, Offaly and Kildare, has also revealed that he also shut the store recently for weeks in October partly because staff left due to the fear of threats from thiefs.
Mr Colgan spoke about some of his experiences on RTÉ's Primetime where he
"On one occasion here one shoplifter was picking up stuff and the staff member saw him taking the stuff and he said to put that back.
"He (the shopifter) picked up a hurl and he made an attempt to hit member staff. He ran out through the door then with the hurl and smashed the the big window and ran off down the road," he said.
From than he told staff that it was too dangerous to intervene and he would get cameras.
He also told the programme that location of the shop beside Portlaoise's Courthouse creates bigger problems.
He added that they will target top end clothing, brands like Adidas or the Nike, nothing is off limits to thieves.
"When the courts are on that's when we would see a lot of the problems. They would steal anything," he said.
He drug addiction is the problem some of the addicts will steal while waiting to appear in court .
"When it gets very serious what we do is we actually have to get this staff closed to shop," he said.
RTÉ reported that when they filmed in late October the shop was closed temporarily for several weeks. While Mr Colgan used the opportunity to refurbish, the closure was caused by a staff shortage partly provoked by fear of aggressive shoplifters
"We had three girls running the shop but two of them has left over a period of time because of being afraid and the intimidation of shoplifters," he said.
The programme heard from Limerick city shopkeeper who has reported a 90% fall in shoplifting and anti-social behaviour from 12 episodes a day to four a week.
He attributed this to a big increase in visible policing on the streets of the city centre.
The Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan told Prime Time that he recognised the damage caused to retailers by shoplifting.
He said a retail crime strategy promised in the Programme for Government would brought to Government in November for approval.
He said exclusion zones for repeat offenders was being considered.
He said he look at giving gardaí the power to arrest people caught shoplifting when out on bail.